bbc.com – “I’m a plaintiff in a pretty interesting Supreme Court case that’s been to the Supreme Court twice,” says the young woman sitting across the table from me, introducing herself for the tape as I adjust the levels on my recorder.

That’s putting it mildly. Abigail Fisher’s case against the University of Texas at Austin (UT) thrust her into the very centre of heated and overlapping public debates about race and identity, integration, privilege and education in the United States.

Fisher brought the case because she wanted to stop the university from using race in the admissions process, arguing that as a white woman she had lost out on a place because preferential treatment was given to black and other minority students.